NAME
OF THE NGO: SANLAAP

MULTILATERAL
NETWORKING: SANLAAP has
networked with the following organisations to put an end to trafficking:

·End Child prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT)

·Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)

·Action Against Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children (ATSEC)

·National Alliance of Women’s Organisations (NAWO)

·Maitree(A state feminist network)

·NGO-AIDS Coalition(West Bengal)

SUCCESSFUL
EXAMPLES:It
has organised a national seminar on Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of
Children.

SOURCES
OF FUNDING:State
Social Welfare Board; Government of India; Save The Children, Denmark; EED; ICCO;
Christian Aid and European Embassies.

GEOGRAPHICAL
AREAS OF OPERATION:Murshidabad,
Nadia, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, north and south 24 parganas and Kolkata districts
of West Bengal.

ACTIVITIES
RELATED TO TRAFFICKING AND PREVENTION OF CSE DONE BY NGO:

Sanlaap
is a developmental human rights organisation that aims towards correction of
gender imbalance, prevention of violence and exploitation of women and children
and facilitation of the empowerment of survivors of trafficking and sexual
exploitation. Sanlaap strives to prevent trafficking, second generation
prostitution and the violence that is inherent in such professions.

Campaign,
Awareness, Training and Networking

The
NGO conducts seminars, workshops and media campaigns to generate awareness
amongst the vulnerable groups. It also distributes IED materials for awareness
generation, undertakes advocacy through networking with NGOs and police
officials and conducts sensitisation programmes for Government officials.

In
order to prevent trafficking, the NGO undertakes gender sensitisation programmes
and community mobilization programmes in the vulnerable communities.

Sanlaap
has networked with Police Department /CID and Government officials who are
provided necessary information and feed back by the volunteers of this
organisation working in the red light areas. It has formed watchdog committees.
To deter the traffickers, the organisation, with the help of police, undertakes
vigorous interception operations at the vulnerable locations.

Rescue
of children and those who are being forced to work in prostitution, is either
undertaken directly or with the collaboration of police. The organisation runs a
Short Stay Home and Observation Home (details about these homes have not been
furnished by the organisation) where vocational training is imparted in
embroidery, block printing, silk cotton weaving, garment designing and beauty
parlour training for the rehabilitation of the inhabitants. If the addresses of
the victims are known, then efforts are made to reunite them with their
families.

Through
its direct work in rescuing trafficked girls, Sanlaap has identified major
source areas of girls trafficked into sexual exploitation. The NGO started its
work from these sites. These 3 sites are:

1.
Matia:Matia
Baazaar – a red light area, with a population of over 400 women engaged in
prostitution – lies in the Barasat-Basirhat connector. Apart from being a
source area from where girls are trafficked to Mumbai, Delhi and other parts of
the country, this is a transit route for trafficked girls from Bangladesh
through the Bashirhat and Hasnabad border.

2.
Canning:This
small town in South 24 Paraganas is heavily affected by a lack of economic
activities. This has contributed to this place being not just the source of
trafficking, but also the busiest route of trafficked victims. Women and
children are trafficked from Bangladesh through the waterways in the Sunderban
delta.

3.
Kultoli:Every
second to third household in Madhusudanpur, Kultoli, has a daughter or a
daughter-in-law, trafficked into prostitution in the red light areas of Kolkata
or Mumbai.

The
Strategy Adopted by Sanlaap

Sanlaap
interwove three lines of work – training, advocacy and networking, with a
prevention strategy. The NGO networked with the Panchayat Leaders, people’s
organisations and the police in the areas where trafficking of children was in
vogue due to poverty and/or cultural practices. Such networking was
operationalized through dialogues and training with those groups on
gender-sensitivity, forms and patterns of trafficking and procedures by which to
respond to potential cases of trafficking.

Youth
groups, who acted as pressure groups, were particularly targeted for the
development of advocates among them. An infrastructure of organised communities
was developed who acted as watchdogs to prevent the entry of women into
prostitution.

Awareness
in the communities was created through information materials that alerted the
families to issues related to trafficking and sexual exploitation as well as to
the concepts regarding violations of the human rights of women and children.

In
2000-2001, “Sanlaap” has received and provided services to over 300 children
and minors who were rescued from prostitution. 40%of them were HIV- positive.

Apart
from the above-mentioned activities Sanlaap supports child protection programmes
for children of women in prostitution in 14 red light areas of Kolkata and its
outskirts. The 14 drop-in centres named “Sopan” provide a safe space for
these children, providing services to ensure that they receive education.
Sanlaap takes custody of some of these children, particularly those at risk, and
they are moved to Sneha, another NGO at Jhargram and Narendrapur (Kolkata) for
special protection.

The
organisation runs a psychological rehabilitation program for children rescued
from prostitution, providing services in mental health, occupational training
and legal aid to facilitate rescue, repatriation or restoration after release
from State custody. Sanlaap runs two shelter homes, as well as runninginterventions in the State run Remand Homes in West Bengal, the focus of
which are on healing and empowerment of girls, emotionally, economically and
psychologically; repatriation and restoration; economic empowerment through
occupational training and education.

No
data related to the victims in the Shelter Homes is maintained by the NGO. They
said that maintaining data takes too much time.

Sanlaap
has networked with the NGOs of Nepal such as Maiti Nepal and Bangladesh for the
prevention of cross-border trafficking.